About the Author

Catherine Kautsky is an active performer lauded by the New York Times as a pianist whose “music spoke directly to the listener, with neither obfuscation nor pretense.” She is chair of the keyboard department at Lawrence Universityin Appleton, Wisconsin, and previously chaired the keyboard department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, winning honors at both institutions for research, performance, and teaching. She has played and taught across the United States, as well as in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe, and is known for the lively commentary that accompanies her music. A sabbatical year spent in Paris stimulated her interest in all things French, and thus this book was born. Its musical counterpart is a CD of the complete Debussy Preludes recently issued by Centaur.

She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Daniel Hausman, a professor of philosophy, and their beautiful German shepherd/collie, Itzhak. She’s the proud mom of two grown sons, both social scientists like almost everyone else in her family. Her great-grandfather, Karl Kautsky, was a famous German Social-Democrat who worked with Marx, Engels, and Rosa Luxemburg; his genetic legacy no doubt drew her toward the gnarly social issues addressed in this volume.